Epic Fail.

Tonight.  Epic fail.  Enormous platter of linguini w/ steamed clams and mussels w/ tomato broth.  Filet minot in a mustard coating.  Wine.  Chocolate raspberry birthday cake.  And my best friends in the world celebrating one of our 40th b'days.  I just didn't care about calories in the midst of all that.  

I'm not sure I'm upset, to be honest.  I can make up for this.  It's one happy, celebratory day.  The meal was phenomenal.  I have a lot of working out to do to make up for it now, but so be it.  I'll remember this celebration w/ friends for years.  

I do, however, have a migraine now and am not working out tonight because of it, so my full calorie intake is going to stand as is for my daily log in.  Here it is, folks - in it's full extreme glory:

Your Daily Summary

-2076

CALORIES REMAINING

Goal	Food	Exercise	= Net
1210	3286	- 0	3286

Wow.  

My boyfriend did tell me today, though, that I am the ideal wife-to-be, and that he loves how committed I am to my fitness routine.  From a former college football player with a tall, muscular, fit build, I am really feeling warm fuzzies to hear him praise my fitness routine and figure.  :)  It was somewhat intimidating when I started dating him.  He's hot.  And I love him with all my heart.  I want to be my best for him in every way I can.  (Eating 3286 calories a day isn't a great way to achieve that, I do realize.)

It's almost tomorrow.  I'll put this day behind me and start working it off.

Challenge tonight

I have a good friend's 40th birthday celebration tonight.  She's making dinner, me and another friend are bringing appetizers/sides and dessert.  I have no idea what food will be there, but I know neither of them are focused much on calorie intake (both very tall and very thin), and the birthday chick is a 1st Class Entertainer, so she likes to have food out all over the place for people (us and our boyfriends/husbands) to walk around stuffing out faces for an hour or so before any meal is served.  It's like walking through a mine-field, trying to go there and avoid overeating.   If I tell them I'm trying not to overeat, they'll tell me to lighten up and enjoy myself for the night.  (I sorta did that last night though - overate for emotional reasons.)

I am OK with going over my calories for her birthday celebration.  I just don't want to go WAYYY over them, esp since I have no chance to get a workout in today.  I can't hike as planned, due to rain.  Boyfriend's on his way over in a bit, so I can't pop in a workout video now.  I had my Cheerios for b'fast already, so I suppose I need to have a salad for lunch and save up all my calories for this evening.  I hate waiting.  I'm really, really fighting a desire to pig out on the whole contents of my kitchen today.

This is hard.  And I guess that's why not everyone is doing it.... >sigh<

I need a great motivational pic now.... (Nothing wrong with re-using my favorites.)

Day 60 - Don't want to work out, ate like hell, blah.

I ate 712 calories over my daily goal today.  The last 400 or so weren't even b/c I was hungry, but because I was stressed, sad, and/or hormonal.  My 14 yr old daughter was on a flight (alone) to her dad's 1,000 miles away for Spring Break.  I HATE watching her walk down the gate onto an airplane and take off into the sky without a parent or even a familiar face on board.  It makes me sick, actually.  But I have to allow it - court rules.  I got home from the airport at 9:30pm and was hungry since I'd only had a small 4:30pm dinner and refused to stop for fast food.  So I proceeded to consume 760 calories of oil-drenched broccoli rabe, and goat cheese ravioli w/ butter & oil, and about 6 cloves of garlic - so that I can have lovely breath along w/ my bulging belly.

And I don't feel AT ALL like exercising tonight.  NOT AT ALL.

OK - now that I got that out....I'm going to exercise and come back and note it in my journal.  Hmph.  Blah.  Whatever... Gotta just do it.


Alright - I did an old easy workout tape, w/ Denise freakin' Austin instructing.  Talk about a blast from the past.  She's so peppy it borders on lunacy, and she has NO rhythm at all.  You can see her backup exercisers struggling to find a balance between staying with the actual rhythm and following her.  I imagine they can get fired if they make her look bad.  It's all pretty amusing, so even though the workout is quite lame - just very, very basic elementary aerobic moves w/ dumbell work in between sets - at least my mind can become engaged in the whole sub-plot of the back-up people not being allowed to stay in rhythm, or risk being replaced by a better Denise Austin follower.  :)  It's a workout, it's a comedy, and it's a drama, all wrapped up into one.

Your Daily Summary

-417

CALORIES REMAINING

Goal	Food	Exercise	= Net
1210	1922	- 295	1627

My motivation pic for the day - GREAT toned legs:

Day 59 - I am having a blast!

I love this challenge. I love the feedback, advice, encouragement and experiences everyone's sharing.  I love my new workout gear - clothes, HRM, heavier dumbbells... I love my new eating habits.  I love FINALLY having a good understanding of how I'm eating (from myfitnesspal) w/ the carbs/protein/fat balance.  Never paid attention to that before.  And I really love the changes I'm seeing in my body while I workout.  I see my waist is smaller.  I see my quads are more defined.  I see my biceps more defined.  Yes, it's taking awhile and I wish I could speed it up, but it's happening steadily and surely and I know I'm in control, and that feels best of all.

I've got the very beginning of a migraine tonight, which should develop into a bigger one by tomorrow, which means it's the time of month when I'm most bloated and weigh the most.  Considering I was very happy with my progress before, I'm even more psyched for a few more days to pass and to see an even more dramatic fast slim down.

I ate some incredibly delicious stuff today, including this thrown together concoction for lunch:
a strip of whole wheat naan topped w/ 1/4 C. shredded fresh mozzerella, freshly halved & roasted cherry tomatoes, chopped artichoke hearts, fresh basil, and (after this photo was taken) crumbled up dried/fried hot peppers in olive oil.

Then for dinner, this YUMMY salad from Trader Joe's.  Look at those ingredients!  It came with the carrot ginger dressing that they put on salads in sushi restaurants.  I LOVE THAT STUFF!!  However, it's very high calorie and fat, so I had to limit it to 1/3 of the serving they provided...which means I have leftovers for 2 more salads now. :)

(Almost done...if I'm gonna take a photo, it's now or never.)

Today's report:  I'm over my calories for the 1st time.  However, I'm extremely pleased that today I came closest to my recommended portions of carbs/protein/fat since I started tracking.
Exercise was Crunch Fitness - Step & Sweat w/ 8" step, and Firm 5 Day Abs.

Your Daily Summary

-30

CALORIES REMAINING

Goal	Food	Exercise	= Net
1210	1600	- 360	1240

My new workout DVD: Tae Bo Ripped Extreme

Man, having my new HRM has me all kinds of psyched to keep trying out different workouts and compare calorie burns!  I'm kinda bummed I can't handle more than 1 per day.  The new Tae Bo is GREAT!!!  Fun and challenging.  Hard enough that I have room for improvement, but not so hard that I'm discouraged.  I see Billy Blanks has changed things up since the old Tae Bo, and is using some of the same moves (esp stretches) as Shaun T/Insanity.  Is there no such thing as copyrights w/ exercise moves?

Today's report:

184

CALORIES REMAINING

Goal	Food	Exercise	= Net
1210	1559	- 533	1026

*You've earned 533 extra calories from exercise today WORKOUT:  Tae Bo Ripped Extreme - 1 hour. (Used 5 lb dumbells for as long as I could, then switched to 3 lb.)

Motivation Post to all who don't like losing "only" a lb a week

I love the middle phrase because it emphasizes how we need to adopt new habits to live with based on what works for us - not by adapting to some rigorous diet that we intend to implement for a few weeks to reach our goals.  A year from now, you won't remember or care what you weighed on the last day of this challenge.  You'll be living life, thinking, working, feeling, taking care of details, eating, and being as active as you've become accustomed to being.  Let's all try to keep that in mind and implement changes we can live with while enjoying life, and that will be reflected in a positive way in our updates during this challenge.  But remember - the habits we adopt for these 10 weeks will only be worthwhile if they remain in effect.  We're not fighting our bodies to make them into something new.  We're fighting our bad habits to let our bodies become how they were naturally meant to be.  THEY WILL!

Typical things that happen when I start feeling like I'm succeeding:

1. I get very motivated to keep it up.

2.  I get so happy with my little bit of progress that I stop feeling the same drive to give it my all.

3.  I look for new, better ways to eat well and get a thorough workout.

4.  I daydream about Chinese take-out and tell myself "I can do that now.  I've got the weight under control."

5.  I cyber shop for pretty bikinis.

6.  I purchase new clothes I shouldn't be trying to afford.

7.  I annoy the crap out of my mom by changing around things she wants to feed me and trying to use healthier options (like leaving dressing off my salad, having whole grain breads or sandwich flats rather than white bread/rolls, requesting she not use much salt while cooking...obnoxious stuff like that.)  

8.  I annoy the crap out of my 14 yr old daughter by suggesting healthy snacks all the time and pointing out what's wrong with the garbage she wants to eat.  She averages about 30 eyerolls per day over my diet related comments.

9.  I do a LOT more laundry to keep up with the stuff I get sweaty when working out.

10.  I feel freakin' amazing when I go grocery shopping to restock my healthy foods.  Can't quite explain the feeling, but I bet most of you know exactly what I mean.  

11.  I feel like my workout DVD instructors are close, personal friends and I often reply to them when they say stuff like "are you ready for this?" or "you can do this!" 

So - today I did Tae Bo - an hour.  Turns out it's not much less of a calorie burner than Insanity is, I suppose because of the bursts and rests in Insanity.  (Insanity - 500/1 hour.  Tae Bo - 466/1 hour.)  Of course, part of the reason also has to be that I can't do Insanity straight through without having to stop and rest or catch my breath a heck of a lot more often than the mutant athlete freaks in the DVD.  I have to wonder if they're just realllllllly well made claymation.

Shaun T and the Insanity elves, doing 45 of these jumps in 45 seconds, sandwiched in between 45 second sets of other INSANE moves like "suicide drills" and "jumping jack push ups" . It just isn't human.
However, Shaun T does become human again when he starts  giving me pep talks to reply to.

I bet my calorie burn will go up with Insanity as my endurance improves.  I'm great w/ Tae Bo though, since I've been doing it pretty regularly for 13 yrs.  

My motivation for the day:

I think maybe my figure will be like the chick
on the left once I liberate it from the flab.

Your Daily Summary

398

CALORIES REMAINING

Goal	Food	Exercise	= Net
1210	1278	- 466	812

I can't possibly eat another 400 calories today.  My brain wants to, but my belly just doesn't want it.  I've eaten well!  3 main meals, 1 mid afternoon snack, one post workout snack.  I'm NOT hungry!

Fruit Salsa w/ Cinnamon Pita Chips

I'm making this tomorrow.  Doesn't it look great?!  I'm leaving out the sugar and the fruit preserves in the fruit though.  Not sure why it would need it.  I'll just sprinkle the pita chips w/ some cinnamon and stevia.  I'll let you know how it works out.

Fruit Salsa with Baked Cinnamon Chips

by Allrecipes

2 kiwis, peeled and diced
2 Golden Delicious apples - peeled, cored and diced
8 ounces raspberries
1 (16 oz) carton of strawberries, diced
2 tablespoons white sugar (more or less to taste)
1 tablespoon brown sugar (more or less to taste)
3 tablespoons fruit preserves, any flavor (I used strawberry)
10 (10 inch) flour tortillas
melted butter or butter flavored cooking spray

Cinnamon sugar:
1 cup white sugar
2 Tablespoons cinnamon

1. In a large bowl, thoroughly mix kiwis, apples, raspberries, strawberries, white sugar, brown sugar and fruit preserves. Cover and chill in the refrigerator at least 15 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
3.Coat one side of each flour tortilla with melted butter or butter flavored cooking spray. Sprinkle tortillas with desired amount of cinnamon sugar. Cut into wedges and arrange in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Spray again with cooking spray (not necessary if using melted butter). 
4.Bake in the preheated oven 8 to 10 minutes. Repeat with any remaining tortilla wedges. Allow to cool approximately 15 minutes. Serve with chilled fruit mixture. This salsa can also be serve with cinnamon graham grackers or cinnamon pita chips. Best when made and eaten the same day otherwise the fruit gives off so too much juice and it gets runny.

Week 8 Weigh In - 147!!

I burned off 1.6 lbs of fat this week!!!! That's a total of 7.4 lbs in 8 weeks.
I wasn't hungry at all.  I enjoyed eating a lot of great stuff this week.  I can do this full time, everyday, for the rest of my life!  This is no crash diet.  And I love my workout hour - nothing I can't keep up with there either.  Yes, I've been doing the harder workouts more consistently lately, but when I hit maintenance mode, I can go back to my previous routine for the past 14 yrs and do some of the less strenuous workouts a few days a week.

I"m doing it!!!
PSYCH!!!!!!


Snoopy time:

Well, I got that under-eating issue thoroughly taken care of!

I went out for lunch and was in the mood for something junk-y.  Honey BBQ chicken strips (with fries, because - well, why not?) sounded like it would do the trick.  My last couple days of under-eating sure didn't work to convince me not to do it.  I did glance at the salads on the menu, but at that restaurant, their salads are pitiful.  Iceberg lettuce, a bit of shredded carrots and 2-3 cherry tomatoes..and croutons, of course, because someone somewhere was thinking "y'know what this salad really needs?  some kind of bread!"   Really - pitiful.  So salad wasn't an option.  Last time I ate here, I calculated nutrition afterwards from the restaurant's website and realized even the healthy menu selections were crazy high in calories.  So why not just enjoy a full out junk food treat?

...and then get ice cream too.

1,284 calories just on lunch today.  >WHEW<  Imagine if I went out to eat a few times a week?  Bad, bad, bad idea!!

I then bought my HRM at the sporting goods store.  I got a Polar FT4.   I have no idea what F T or 4 stand for, but it sounds serious and high tech, and I may very well burn more calories just due to the fact that I feel so officially monitored.  Yep!  Never mind the fact that I got a pink one.  (Annie, I thought of you and chuckled...Some of us LIKE pink a lot. ;)  )  Pink can be a very serious and strong color.  Heck - I'll MAKE it so!!

So now I'm about to take this thing out of the package.  If only I could use it WHILE trying to open this moronically designed packaging, because I bet I'd burn a couple hundred cal's in the process.   Hopefully it's simple to get started with and I can jump right into tonight's Insanity workout without having to fidget with this thing much.  I am 804 calories over my daily amount today, so I need a great workout!  And tomorrow morning is my weekly weigh in.  I hit the 140's 2 weeks ago, and brought it down to 148.6 last week.  This week has been EXCELLENT and I am giddy with excitement to see what the scale says tomorrow!!  I do wish I didn't care so much, and that my NSV's were outshining the scale progress, but I can't help but feel elated when I see #'s on the scale giving me something concrete to confirm that my efforts are paying off.  When I think of hitting 144 - a weight I was for a long time when I think I looked really good - I feel sorta the way I did those early months with my boyfriend, when a thought/realization just makes my heart feel like it's suddenly soaring.  Yeah - THAT good!!!!  I'm so close!!!  I WANT IT!!!!!

Suddenly really regretting that stupid honey BBQ chicken strip blunder.  >sigh<  Oh well.

Will update after Insanity and breaking in this kickass yet adorable pink HRM.

Motivation  pic for the day:

THIS is the abs I want.  And legs.  And arms. She can keep the shoelaces though.

Holy cow - I just had to come back and edit my caloric intake for yesterday because I totally forgot that ice cream sundae I had after lunch.  That's a LOT of calories to overlook.  Thankfully, I had a fabulous weigh in this morning, so I'm not regretting or worried about that enormous lunch now.  I guess I earned it.

Totals	2,524	219	150	107
Your Daily Goal	1,710	234	56	63
Remaining	-814	15	-94	-44
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein
	*You've earned 500 extra calories from exercise today

Insanity Max Interval Plyo:  My new HRM indicated I burned EXACTLY 500 cals  at the end. I was tempted to do a few jacks just to make the number look more  exact and not like I rounded it off.